


Curiosity Killed the Archivist (or at Least Inconvienced Him)

by bluebirdishere



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Catboy Jon, Crack Treated Seriously, Dehumanization, Fluff, Leitner Books (The Magnus Archives), M/M, Sort Of, Tea as a love language, tags will be updated w/ story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:41:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27740923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebirdishere/pseuds/bluebirdishere
Summary: Jon reads a Leitner and turns into a catboy. That's it, that's the plot
Relationships: Jonathan Sims & Martin Blackwood & Sasha James & Tim Stoker, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan Sims
Comments: 33
Kudos: 182





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'd say I'm sorry for this cursed concept, but that would be a lie
> 
> Shoutout to Sukurarose92, whose awesome headcanons served as the inspiration for this fic!

Jon grumbled to himself as he pulled yet another box of files off of where it had been haphazardly stuck on the bookshelf. He and his assistants had been working in the archives for a few months at this point, yet they’d barely been able to make a dent in the mess that was their workspace. No matter how many statements they researched or closed, there were still numerous papers to sort through. As such, Jon had taken to staying at work late into the evening in the hope that a few extra hours here and there would help. It didn’t, as far as he could tell, but it was a nice dream to have.

He opened the box and began pulling papers out, only to stop halfway through. Mixed in with the rest of box’s contents was a small, leather-bound book. He carefully grabbed the book and began to examine it. The front cover was completely blank, but the spine read _Ab Homine ut Felis_. Jon’s Latin was, by his own admission, somewhat rusty, but he was fairly sure the title roughly meant “human to cat.” _What kind of nonsense title is that_? Frowning, he flipped the book open and began reading over the first page, also written in Latin. While he didn’t understand the entirety of the passage, he noticed the words for “cat” and “human” appeared several times, along with the word for “transformation.” _‘Cat, human, transformation’? That doesn’t make any sense- Wait, is this…?_ He frantically closed the book and turned to the back cover. There, tucked in the lower left corner, was a stamp that read “From the library of Jurgen Leitner.”

Jon hastily dropped the book and backed away, heart pounding. _Stupid, stupid, stupid, you should know to check books before you read them_. He ran to the supply closet, grabbed a pair of gloves and a bag, and carefully sealed the book inside the bag before placing it on his office desk. Once that was done, he ran to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. He half-expected to find that he’d transformed into some sort of horrible cat monster, but to his relief, everything looked normal. Still, it would be a good idea to keep an eye out to see if anything changed over the next day or two.

_That_ _can wait until morning, though,_ he decided with a yawn. The combination of his perpetual exhaustion and the energy crash of adrenaline leaving his system left him about ready to fall over. Too tired to ride the tube home, he returned to his office, closing the door and turning out the lights. He carefully removed his shoes before grabbing the blanket that hung over the back of his couch and curling up. With any luck, everything would still be fine in the morning

-

Martin hummed to himself as he finished preparing everyone’s tea. The archives had been surprisingly quiet that morning. None of the assistants had seen hide nor hair of Jon yet, but that wasn’t especially surprising, given his tendency to hole himself up in his office all day. Personally, Martin didn’t think his boss’s extreme work ethic was all that healthy, but it wasn’t like there was much he could do about it besides badger him into taking the occasional break.

Well, badger him and bring him tea. Once the drinks were done, Martin put all four mugs onto a tray and left the break room. First stop was Sasha’s desk. She’d been working on a creepy statement on all morning – something about a woman’s spelunking trip gone wrong – and he figured she could probably use the pick-me-up. As he approached, she looked up and smiled at him.

“Thank you, Martin,” she said, taking the mug gently from his hands.

“’Course,” he replied, returning her smile with one of his own.

Tim, meanwhile, had finished writing up a report earlier in the morning and was now playing a game on his phone, not even trying to pretend he was being productive. When he saw Martin coming, though, he put his phone down and eagerly grinned.

“Cheers, Marto,” he said as he took the mug. “Don’t know what we’d do without you.”

Martin beamed back, trying not to feel too flustered. He’d never been the best at accepting compliments. “Yeah, sure thing.” His next stop was his own desk, and he set his mug down before making his way over to Jon’s office. He gently rapped his knuckles against the door. “Jon?”

There was a faint stirring sound, followed by Jon calling for him to come in, and he opened the door.

“Made you your tea,” he began as he entered. “And I’ve almost finished with that report on-“

He stopped dead in his tracks.

Jon had a _tail_. A long, brown, fluffy tail, resting on the couch next to him. Looking a bit closer, Martin could also see that his normal ears were gone. Instead, there were two pointed ears sitting on top of his head, same color as the tail and equally fluffy.

“What?” Jon asked, his voice an odd mixture of irritation and dread. “Is something the matter?”

“Um…” Did he not already know? _Oh dear, there’s not really a good way to break the news, is there?_ “Have you looked in the mirror recently?”

Jon paled. Ignoring the question, he stood up and quickly flew out the door. As he disappeared, the sounds of Tim and Sasha yelling could be heard.

“W-wait!” Martin hurriedly set the tray down and ran out of the room after his boss. He ran through the archives, passing his coworkers’ empty desks along the way before reaching the bathroom. As he pushed open the door, he was greeted with Jon, Tim, and Sasha standing in front of the mirror, all staring at Jon’s reflection. Moving in to get a better look, Martin saw that Jon’s eyes had also changed. They were more cat-like now, pupils vertical and the rest of the eye light green in color.

“What _happened_?” Sasha asked. “Were you messing around with something in Artefact Storage?”

The question seemed to shake Jon out of his daze. “No, I… I read a book and realized too late that it was a Leitner,” he admitted, shoulders slumping.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright,” Tim soothed. “Yeah, this is weird, but considering some of the crap Leitners are capable of, I’d say you got off pretty easy.”

Jon glared at him. “You consider looking like a cat ‘getting off easy’? I can’t exactly go out in public like this!” His tail swished in agitation.

Tim held up his hands in a placating motion. “Okay, first of all, you don’t look _that_ much like a cat.” He had a point; aside from the new features, Jon looked completely normal. “Secondly, you can cover it all up! Just wear a long coat to hide the tail and pull a hat over your ears.”

“And the eyes?”

“Sunglasses? Or, you know, say they’re contacts.”

Jon stared at him for a moment before bringing his hands up to his face and groaning. He jumped when Sasha put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Sorry,” she murmured quietly, “Just… we’ll find a way to fix this, okay?”

“Yeah!” Martin blurted. “And until we fix it, we’ll give you all the support you need!”

Jon smiled a little at that. “I… thank you, all of you. That means a lot to me.”

Tim’s face softened. “Of course, Jon. We do care about you, you know. Now, bring it in!” He spread his arms out and began moving closer to Jon, Sasha and Martin quickly following suit. Before Jon could protest, he was wrapped in a tight embrace by all of his coworkers.

“Hey- you can’t just- oh, very well,” he grumbled, unsuccessfully trying to wriggle out before giving up and allowing himself to be hugged.

The four of them held onto each other for several moments, not saying a word. After about a minute, Martin began to feel an odd rumbling coming from Jon. _Is that- is he really…?_

“Why, boss,” Tim began, before Martin could speak up. “Are you _purring_?”

“No,” Jon insisted, too quickly to be truthful. His ears flattened against his head. “Now get off of me.”

“Fine, fine.” The three assistants let go, allowing Jon to escape. Tim grinned at him. “Just saying, though, your purring was actually pretty cu-“

“Shut up, Tim!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Martin makes tea and new discoveries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is nothing but shameless fluff. Enjoy!

“You know,” Tim began with a weary grin, “I always figured the boss was more of a cat person, but I didn’t think the term was quite so literal.”

Sasha rolled her eyes. “You’re having entirely too much fun with this, you know that?”

Tim shrugged. “Hey, can you blame me? He’s _adorable_ like that.”

“Don’t let him hear you say that,” Sasha muttered as she turned back to the stack of papers sitting in front of her. The assistants had been tasked with finding as many Leitner-related statements as possible in the hopes that one of them would contain a clue as to how to reverse the effects of a Leitner. Jon, meanwhile, had retreated back to his office to perform some research on the cat book. Privately, Sasha was a bit envious that her boss had the comparatively easy task. Searching through endless piles of statements felt like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Martin stand up from his desk with a groan. “I think my eyes are gonna fall out if I keep reading these. Anyone up for some tea?”

“That would be lovely, thank you,” Sasha replied with a tired smile.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Tim mumbled, rubbing a hand over his eyes.

“Alright.” Martin made his way to the break room, glad to feel useful for once. He may not have been the best researcher, but he certainly knew how to take care of people, and after several hours of pouring over statements, he figured everybody could use some extra kindness.

This was especially true for Jon, who had been on edge ever since the scene in the bathroom earlier in the day. It was a stark contrast to his usual demeanor – Martin had seen him angry plenty of times, sure, but never afraid. Never _vulnerable_. It made Martin want to wrap him up in a warm blanket, hold him close and never let g-

_Nope, we are not going down THAT particular path right now,_ Martin told himself firmly. The whole situation was stressful enough as it was, he didn’t need to make things worse by bringing his silly little crush into the mix.

Even if he did secretly agree with Tim that Jon was adorable.

-

Jon closed his laptop with a frustrated sigh. He’d been researching the Leitner, and cat-people in general, for several hours now, and all he really had to show for it was some rather… _unusual_ artwork he’d stumbled upon. Neon-colored cats with questionable anatomy were all well and good, he supposed, but they weren’t exactly going to solve his predicament.

As unhelpful as those results had been, however, at least he’d actually _found_ something when trying to learn more about cat-people. He’d spent hours scouring the internet and had failed to find a single scrap of information on the Leitner. Nothing on where the book came from, what else it was capable of, or, most importantly, how to undo the curse. He could ask the library staff about it, maybe… No. No, they’d ask why he needed information on this particular book so badly, and there was absolutely no way Jon was going to explain what had happened to him. His assistants seeing him like this was humiliating enough, he didn’t want to drag even more people into this. But then how was he supposed to learn more about the Leitner? He couldn’t undo the damn curse if he didn’t know anything about it, and if he couldn’t undo it, he’d be stuck as a cat-person forever, all because he’d been careless enough to pick up some creepy old book and just start reading, _how could he have been so stupid-_

A series of gentle raps on the door pulled him out of his thought spiral. “Jon? Is it alright if I come in?”

That was Martin, probably here with the afternoon tea round, and Jon breathed out a sigh of relief. He’d never admit so out loud, but he was secretly grateful for the daily tea deliveries. The hot beverages helped ground him, helped wash away the dread that came with recording some of the odder statements. It was warm and comforting, like he was drinking a hug.

Jon blinked in surprise before quickly shaking his head, shooing the thought away. He wasn’t sure where _those_ feelings had come from, but he wasn’t in the mood to examine them. “That’s fine, Martin.”

The door opened to reveal Martin, who was carrying a tray that had a mug and a small plate of biscuits on it.

“You didn’t come out for lunch, so I thought maybe you could use the biscuits,” he said as he crossed the room and began placing the tray’s contents on Jon’s desk. “I’ve found a couple Leitner-related statements, but nothing about the one you read-“ He turned to face Jon and immediately startled.

“What?” Jon asked, trying not to panic. “Is there something _else_ wrong with me?”

“Er… I’m not sure?” Martin replied. “You look basically the same as you did earlier, except your pupils are _really_ wide now. They’re practically circles.”

Oh… that was much more benign than Jon was expecting. It was still unusual, though; he knew enough about cat body language to know that a sudden widening of the pupils normally indicated excitement, but he couldn’t think of a reason why he’d be _excited_ to see Martin, except perhaps the tea. Speaking of…

“That… is a little odd,” he conceded, reaching for the mug. “But I feel perfectly fine, so it’s probably nothing.” He brought the mug up to his lips and took a sip. The hot liquid ran down his throat, filling him with a pleasant warmth. As he drank, he was vaguely aware of a sort of rumbling sensation happening in his body. He didn’t pay much attention to it, though, he was more concerned with finishing his beverage.

When he set the mug back down, he noticed Martin staring at him, blushing furiously.

“What?” he snapped.

Martin let out a squeak. “N-nothing! Nothing, it’s just, um, you were, you know…”

“I was _what_?”

“…you were purring again. Loudly,” he finished, not meeting Jon’s eyes.

“Wh- I was not!” Jon spluttered.

“You definitely were-“

“I _wasn’t_ ,” he insisted. “Go- go look through more statements, or something.” He made a dismissive motion with his hands, eyes firmly trained on his desk.

“R-right.” With that, Martin quickly left the room, still blushing up a storm. Once he was gone, Jon put his head in his hands and quietly groaned. Looking like a cat wasn’t embarrassing enough, no, he had to go and make it worse by _acting_ like a cat too.

This curse was going to be the death of him.

-

This curse was going to be the death of Martin.

Jon had _purred_ at him. Or, well, not really _at_ him, but in response to him? In response to his tea, at least. Jon purring because he liked the tea… Martin was pretty sure that if his cheeks got any hotter, his whole face would burst into flame. Lord, and he was going to have to bring Jon tea again tomorrow, too. What if the little incident wasn’t a one-time thing, what if it kept happening? How was he supposed to survive being frequently exposed to something so _adorable_?

“Whoa, Marto, you alright there?” Tim asked, cutting into his thoughts. “You look like you’re about to spontaneously combust.”

“I-I’m fine, just…” He took a deep breath before making his way over to where Tim and Sasha’s desks were. When he spoke again, he kept his voice quiet, not wanting their boss to overhear. “Don’t tell Jon I told you this, but I went in to give him his afternoon tea, same as usual, and, he, um, he purred really loudly. When he drank it. It was… it was _so_ cute, you guys.”

His coworkers stared at him in shock before Tim turned to Sasha, grinning like a madman. “See! I _told_ you he’s adorable.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Sasha rolled her eyes, but she was smiling nonetheless. “Seriously though, that’s actually really sweet.”

“Tell me,” Tim began, leaning back in his chair with a smirk. “When’s the wedding?”

“Wh- Tim!” Martin replied, absolutely flustered. “H-He just liked my tea, that’s all! It doesn’t really mean anything!”

“He purred _loudly_ because he liked your tea. That’s practically a love confession!”

“It’s really not! It was just tea, there’s nothing more to it!”

“I dunno, it sounds like he was pretty happy to see you.”

“He’s never been happy to see me,” Martin mumbled. He thought back to the encounter in the office. “It was sort of weird at first, actually. I walked in there and his pupils were like circles.”

“Huh,” Tim replied. “Yeah, that is pretty weird. Maybe you spooked him or something?”

“Maybe? But I always give him tea around this time, and I knocked before I went in…”

“Actually, I think Tim was right,” Sasha said, looking up from her phone. “Apparently, when cats get excited about something, their pupils will suddenly widen. He really _was_ happy to see you, Martin.”

“O-oh.” Martin’s initial instinct was to deny it, insist that there was no way Jon could possibly be glad to be around him, but at the same time… the idea of him walking into a room being enough to brighten Jon’s day made his heart soar. Maybe he had a chance after all?

“I knew it!” Tim laughed. “Seriously, you two would be absolutely lovely together.”

“Tim…”

“Just ignore him,” Sasha said as she returned to the stack of statements on her desk. She grabbed the topmost one before turning to Martin and giving him a sly smile. “Do tell us when the wedding is, though.”

“ _Sasha!_ ”

She let out a snort before dissolving into a fit of laughter, Tim quickly joining her. Martin sighed and went back to his desk. If Jon didn’t kill him, his coworkers surely would.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angst? In my fluff fic? It's more likely than you think

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for panic attacks and a brief reference to emotional abuse

“You think we should go check on him?” Martin asked. It was nearly five o’clock, and the archival assistants hadn’t heard a peep from Jon since Martin was in his office earlier in the afternoon.

“Couldn’t hurt,” Sasha replied, standing up from her desk. She’d known Jon long enough to know he’d work all night if they let him. She walked over to his office and raised a hand to knock. Before she could do so, though, the door swung open to reveal a haggard-looking Jon. His tail, which seemed even fluffier than it had been before, was twitching erratically, and his eyes were borderline manic. He looked at Sasha in surprise before speaking.

“Ah, Sasha, I was just about to come ask the three of you how your research was going.”

“It’s going alright,” she answered evenly. “Are you… okay?”

He glowered back at her. “I’m fine, thank you.”

She raised an eyebrow at him before continuing in a softer tone. “You know it’s okay if you’re not though, right? You’re allowed to be upset about this. We won’t judge you for it.”

“I…” He swallowed before speaking again. “Your concern is appreciated Sasha, but as I said, I’m perfectly fine.”

Sasha sighed, but didn’t bother pushing the issue further. Jon could be incredibly stubborn when he wanted to, and more often than not, it wasn’t worth the effort to argue with him. She could only hope that he’d take her words to heart.

“Right. Well, we weren’t able to find a ton of info on reversing the effects of a Leitner, but there was that one case I did follow-up on recently, the Dominic Swain one? He briefly owned a Leitner that gave him severe vertigo, but it went away after the book was burned.”

“Hmm.” Jon went quiet, considering. After a minute, he shook his head. “What if that doesn’t work, though? What if… we burn the book and nothing changes, or-or it turns out we’ve destroyed the only means of turning me back, or-“ His words were cut off as he began to hyperventilate.

_Oh, shit._ “Hey, hey, it’s alright,” Sasha soothed, trying to calm him down. “Deep breaths, okay?”

Jon tried to reply to her, but all that came out was a strangled noise.

“Don’t try to talk, just focus on breathing. In and out, in and out, that’s it…” She carefully walked him to her desk, and he sat down, still breathing rapidly. As she continued murmuring encouragement, she noticed Martin and Tim staring, mixed looks of concern and horror on both their faces.

An idea struck Sasha. “Hey Martin, could you please go brew another cup of tea for Jon? And Tim, mind getting that blanket he keeps in his office?” Both men shot up from their chairs, and Sasha turned back to her boss. “That’s it, you’re okay, just keep breathing.”

A minute later, Tim was at Jon’s side, blanket in hand. “Here you go, bossman. Want me to just wrap it around you?”

Jon nodded shakily, and Tim carefully wrapped the blanket around his shoulders, enveloping him in the warm fabric. By this point, his breathing had slowed considerably, though he still looked worn out. “T-thank you, Tim, I- I appreciate that.”

“Of course. Jon. We’ll all help you through this, yeah?”

“Mhm.” Jon closed his eyes and, after several seconds, slowly leaned his head against Sasha’s arm.

“Don’t fall asleep just yet,” she teased. “Martin will be out here any second with some tea for you.”

Jon grumbled, but opened his eyes again, though his head stayed on Sasha’s arm. She had to admit, from this angle, she could see why her coworkers thought he was adorable.

Before long, Martin emerged from the break room, mug in hand. He joined his colleagues and carefully handed Jon his drink.

“Thank you, Martin,” Jon said quietly, reaching for the mug. Sasha couldn’t see his eyes from where she was standing, but judging from the blush on Martin’s face, they were probably doing the whole “widen to show excitement” thing again. Oh, she was never going to let him live this down.

Jon finished the tea in a few sips, purring loudly the whole time. Once he was done, he set the mug on the desk and turned to face his coworkers.

“Right, er… I’m sorry you all-“

“Jon,” Tim interrupted. “We’ve been telling you the whole day that we will give you all the support you need, no problem. If you’re seriously about to apologize for needing help during a stressful time, I will lovingly kick your ass.”

Jon stared at Tim in mild shock before picking back up. “-I mean, thank you for trying to look out for me?”

Tim nodded. “Much better.”

Jon rolled his eyes. “Well, I can at least apologize for keeping you here so late. I imagine you all would much rather go home than stay here and look at statements all night.”

The archival assistants glanced at each other.

“Depends,” Sasha began. “Were you planning on working throughout the night after we left?”

“Wh- of course not!” Jon sputtered in an unconvincing tone.

“Really?”

“Well I can’t exactly go outside looking like this!” Jon’s tail swished angrily. “If I’m going to be stuck in the archives, I might as well try to get some work done!”

“Hey, take it easy there, boss,” Tim said. “Look, you can borrow my coat, and one of us can run and get you a hat and some sunglasses. We can hide all your cat parts, then you can head home.”

“But what if somebody _sees_? What if the hat comes off, or my tail pokes out from under the coat, or-“

_Nope, you are not talking yourself into another panic attack_. Sasha grabbed one of Jon’s hands and squeezed, trying to reassure him that everything was alright, that he was safe. “You’re okay, you’re okay. Deep breaths again, yeah?”

He nodded and took a shaky gulp of air before exhaling, repeating the cycle for a few minutes until he calmed down again.

“Alright,” Tim said. “That’s a no-go on leaving the archives, then.”

“So… what do we do?” Martin asked.

Everyone went silent, mulling over possible options. Finally, Tim snapped his fingers. “I’ve got it. Two words: archives sleepover.”

Jon gave him a long-suffering look. “You can’t _possibly_ be serious.”

Tim rolled his eyes. “Look, you’re obviously not comfortable leaving the building, and I think I speak for all the assistants when I say we don’t want to leave you alone.” Sasha and Martin nodded along in agreement.

“…And I suppose the odds of me talking you out of this are basically zero?”

“Mmm, more like exactly zero,” Tim replied with a grin.

Jon pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh. “Christ, I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this… fine, we can have an ‘archives sleepover.’”

Tim let out a loud whoop and threw an arm around Jon’s shoulders. “Trust me boss, this’ll be the most fun you’ve ever had!”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

-

An hour and a half later, all four archival employees were sitting in document storage. Tim and Sasha were sitting together on an old air mattress Tim had brought, and Jon and Martin were seated on opposite ends of the cot placed in the room for “late nights at work”, according to Jon. The assistants had procured pajamas, games, and movies from their respective flats, and stopped at a nearby Tesco for drinks and snacks on their way back to the institute.

“So!” Tim began, once they were all comfy. “What should we do first?”

Martin looked over at the stack of games. “Well, we could try Uno, or maybe Monopoly?”

Sasha wrinkled her nose. “I thought this was supposed to be _fun_.”

“What, you don’t consider getting trounced in Monopoly fun, Ms. James?” Tim asked with a grin.

“Need I remind you what happened the last time you, me, and Martin played Monopoly?”

Martin shuddered. “She has a point, Tim.”

Jon looked up from his spot on the cot. He was wearing a T-shirt and flannel pajama pants borrowed from Martin, and the clothes were large enough on him that he was practically drowning in the fabric. “Why? What happened the last time the three of you played Monopoly?”

There was an uncomfortable silence as the assistants glanced between each other.

“Nothing you need to worry about, boss!” Tim said finally. “Just a friendly game of Monopoly that may or may not have resulted in Sash losing the security deposit to her flat!”

“Wait, how did-“

“Maybe we should just watch a movie?” Martin suggested. “I brought _Howl’s Moving Castle_ , if you guys like Studio Ghibli?”

“Who _doesn’t_ like Studio Ghibli?” Sasha asked as she reached for a bag of crisps.

“The bossman, maybe?” Tim answered in a teasing tone. “He _does_ seem to be allergic to anything that’s not sweater-vests and old papers-mmph!”

Tim was cut off as Jon’s tail lightly smacked him in the mouth. He shoved the offending limb away, Martin and Sasha giggling at him in the process.

Tim glared up at his boss. “You did that on purpose.”

“You can’t prove that,” Jon replied, a hint of a smile on his face. “And for the record, I’ve never seen the film, so I have no opinion on it one way or the other.”

“Okay, now we _have_ to watch it,” Sasha insisted. “I refuse to accept that you have not seen the masterpiece that is _Howl’s Moving Castle_.”

“Seconded,” Tim agreed. “Pass the movie over, please, Marto.” Martin handed him the DVD and he popped it into his laptop. Everyone clustered around the screen as Tim began the movie.

-

Jon made it through almost two-thirds of the movie before falling asleep. The assistants briefly debated waking him up to order dinner, but ultimately decided that his need for sleep was too great (“Yes, eating’s important, but you’ve _seen_ his eye bags, Sash”) and settled for placing his portion in the break room fridge for when he woke up. They sat together around the break room table, quietly eating Chinese takeaway.

Sasha was the first to break the silence. “So. Thoughts on trying to burn the book tomorrow?”

Martin looked up from his lo mein. “I thought Jon said he didn’t want us doing that.”

“It’s the closest thing we have to a solution,” Sasha retorted. “And it worked for Dominic Swain. Who’s to say it won’t work for us?”

“We don’t know that it will work, though.”

“We won’t know unless we try it.”

“And if it doesn’t work?” Martin replied, his tone hard. “Say we burn the book, and nothing changes. What do we do then?”

“Then we keep researching, see what else we can learn, like we would for any other case.”

Martin opened his mouth to deliver another retort, but he was interrupted by Tim. “This _isn’t_ any other case, though. Jon’s our boss, yeah, but more than that, he’s our friend, and-“ He sighed. “I dunno, Sasha. If he doesn’t want to burn the book, let’s hold off on it for now.”

“…Fine.”

“Thank you.”

With the argument settled, an uncomfortable silence sat in the room. Nobody really felt like eating anymore.

“Well!” Martin announced, quickly standing up and going to put his leftovers in the fridge. “I’m going to go check on Jon.” He didn’t wait for an answer before rushing out of the room.

He _hated_ arguing with people. He knew Sasha’s intentions were good, and that she wasn’t truly upset with him, but that hadn’t stopped his stomach from twisting into fearful knots, nor his heart from hammering. At least she’d had the decency not to yell at him. Not that she would, probably, she didn’t seem the type to do that, but... He’d been on the receiving end of his mother’s anger plenty of times and, well, ingrained fears were difficult to get rid of.

Checking on Jon should calm his nerves, though. If nothing else, he’d get a welcome reprieve from the tense atmosphere of the break room. He quietly opened the door to document storage and looked over at the cot.

He was greeted by the sight of a single pair of glowing dots, peering out at him from the darkness.

He yelped and threw an arm out, frantically searching for the light switch. His hand collided with it and he quickly turned it on, throwing the room into a harsh brightness and prompting the other occupant to let out a yell.

“Martin!” _Wait, that sounded like…_

“Jon?” As his eyes adjusted to the sudden light, Martin looked back at the cot and saw Jon sitting up, an annoyed look on his face.

Oh. Of course it was just Jon, not some horrible monster ready to attack him.

“Sorry about that,” Martin began apologetically. “It was just, um- your eyes glow in the dark now, apparently.”

Jon gave him a long look before sighing. “Of course they do,” he muttered. He stood up and stretched, his tail gently swishing around. Once he was done, he turned to face Martin. “I’m sorry for startling you.”

“It’s alright. Not like you meant to do it,” Martin replied with a wave of the hand. “If you’re hungry, there’s Chinese takeaway in the break room fridge.”

“Yes, that does sound rather nice right about now.” He offered Martin a small smile. “Lead the way.”

“R-right.” Martin turned and started walking towards the break room, trying to ignore the heat in his cheeks. His heart had begun hammering again, but for a warmer reason this time.


End file.
